Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Clay Garcia and John Dudley - Aim True and Give Back

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

Clay Garcia is the founder of the Helping Heroes Foundation, an organization that stands as a beacon of support for those who've served, offering vital assistance to disabled veterans as they navigate life after service.  Clay and John have teamed up to create an extraordinary opportunity to make a difference. The Helping Heroes Foundation is hosting an exclusive raffle where the lucky winner will take home a custom Nock On bow crafted by none other than John Dudley himself. If you're a 30 percent disabled veteran, the prize includes more than just a bow – it's an invitation to an unforgettable Iowa whitetail deer hunt. And if you're not a veteran, fear not. You can still be a part of the raffle by nominating a deserving veteran to receive this once-in-a-lifetime experience, but you get the bow either way. Tune in to discover how you can contribute to this worthy cause and stand alongside Clay, John, and the Helping Heroes Foundation as they strive to make a meaningful impact in the lives of those who've served our country with honor and courage. Link to the raffle: https://ticketstripe.com/iowaveteranarcheryhunt Link to the Helping Heroes Foundation: https://helpingheroesfoundation.org/  

Okay, got to red smoke. Smoke, west of the smoke. Okay, copy. West of the smoke. I'm looking at danger close now. I love that I'm sitting on a Yeti go box and I'm still taller in you guys. I was telling Leo when we were on our way here, I said, I hope he didn't get any taller. It's disturbing how big you are, actually.

Sorry. I'm going to have to slanch, yeah. Trust me. Yeah. Okay, go ahead and talk about your shoes, guys. Let's just go ahead and open with things that are important to you. I'm sure the audience will love it. Well, he's got an American theme, J-1 low-top, so what's wrong with that?

I understood the low-top. I understood low-top. You understood American. Yeah, that part. Okay. What's the other part? I am not a shoe guy in any way, shape, or form. These are Air Jordan ones.

So it's like the very first Air Jordan. Well, this one isn't technically the first. I was going to say, are they replicas of that? Yes, yes. They've made a comeback. and these I have a little camo accent on the back. He's red, white, and blue, and you're in vans, which are also awesome.

These are American-made California. H-E-2s, vintage. No, they're not. I don't have any clue. These are probably made by... I think those are HMEs or something. I don't know. And these are the winterized ones.

Winter-rise ones? What do they have, Annie-freezing them? Look, dude, look at this traction. Those are waffle stompers. No, these are actually really good. Just be quiet for stalking. Vans makes a really awesome, like their lower soul is like really soft on gravel. I wear the vans with the boa and the Gortex.

How much do you trust the boas? A lot. I haven't had one fail yet, have you? I traditionally don't wear them except for my snowboarding boots. And we just got back from a two-day snowboarding. Did you get the vans? Did you get the vans ones? I didn't, and I honestly can't remember.

I think they might be Burton boots. I've had them for quite some time, but every day we had at least one boa eject. Not from mine, and they were able to be fixed, but it would pop off the side of the boot. And they were fixable, and the boot was usable. Sounds dumb. My vans don't do that one.

Have you ever snowboarding with them? Yeah. I have the van snowboarding boots. They're awesome. I want you to use one time in Montana? I mean, one time with you. Normally I do it more with other friends that invite me more like Mark Carter,

but not to name drop or anything. He's never invited you snowboarding. Uh, yeah. I actually went helibboarding with him. No, you didn't go helip boarding. You, after Montana

were around Mark and he got into a helicopter. You got into a helicopter too. They let you off on what's known as a bunny hill on the top. You can say what you want. I was there. You weren't there.

Yes, I was. Remember we triggered in the parking lot that day? I had boarded with him all day at the resort. I don't. I don't remember you going up there. I wasn't in the helicopter because I left. That was pure, just content photo shoot. That was not.

Show the run down the hill. Okay. Hold on. Let's see. It was forwarded to me. We'll put it in the episode. I got to find the date. Yeah.

I got to find the date. Sixth week of August? Possibly. Hold on. Let's see here. Let's see. Mark shredding. Hold on.

March 16th, 2019. Yeah, I was there. Okay, you were. You were in the loser area. Yeah. Is where you were. Yep. Okay, let's see.

There's me and you and whitefish. When you literally, I had never known how to snowboard and he took me up to the highest one off the get going. You're like, bro. Yep. Have fun. That was a good test. And then let's see. Here we go.

I mean, I'm pretty sure that's me. That's Mark Carter. Mark Carter with stilts on his legs. You cannot make turns like that. What are you talking about, bro? This is me right here. No, it's not. Okay. 100% not you.

Okay. Mark was way better than me. For those of you can't see the video, which is all of you, it's a picture or a video of somebody snowboarding from behind. You can't even see your face. No, that's not you. If that was you, you would have been eating shit already. No, that was me just getting after it.

Don't be jealous, dude, for the raw. natural talent. P.B. Angelus? Yeah. See, there's Mark. Notice how... He is standing... He is a wee man. God, that is a great picture. There's Mark standing on a Yeti and we're the same height.

I went snowboarding with him. But notice how I have black pants. He had the camo pants. I couldn't get those last minute or anything. I went snowboarding with him at a resort. He was doing shit that boggled my mind. Oh, yeah. I want some of that, actually. Not again. Dude, look at the vein in my head.

from that choke you were putting on me. It looks like the flux capacitor. That little grip right there is not going to help you. In the back of the DeLorean. Yeah, that was, you nuked me that day, but jackass. It'd only be worse now. It would be so much worse. I think I'd been training for a year at that point.

Yeah, it would be bad right now. It probably would be easier. That was at Twight's Jim. Yeah, that was really fun. Yeah. Sorry to alienate you, Clay. Feel free to join the number. We're just reminiscing over the galactic amount of dumb shit that we've done over the years.

We've known each other. Okay, so we're in Iowa near Des Moines. That's the right way to say it, right? Or is it Des Moines. For French, yeah. Des Moines for Out of Towner. Clay, let's start off. I mean, introductions.

People know Dudley. He actually might be the single most returned guest on the show, so that one's easy. But Clay, introduce yourself in what you do and kind of explain the event that we are at. I want to use this episode as a way for. for people to figure out what the event is and launch the raffle. And win big. Well, this is cool.

They have to participate. This is probably my favorite, like, raffle we've ever done. Yeah. This is big. If you're a hunter, listen, this is insane. Even if you aren't a hunter, I would enter into this raffle

and give shit to people I know. A hundred percent. 100 percent. Yeah, 100 percent. If you've got a business and you have anyone that would qualify, it would be worth getting some tickets because this would be like the best employee gift you could hand to someone especially given the parameters of being able to win and then to be able to give that away at a business

it'd be pretty cool yeah tell us about it dude yeah well introduce yourself first and then break it all down for us yeah my name's clay Garcia I'm the executive director for the helping harris foundation um we kind of operate we'll call it coast to coast but our goal is to get vets and first responders outdoors, largely through hunting, fishing, anything that we can do to get them out, with kind of the overall goal of mental health, wellness, the suicide pandemic, if you will, that we're in. Yeah, no kidding. But in the end, we just try to get, we connect vets and cops and firefighters with the outdoors.

How long has it been around? We started, so around 2019-ish. I had a battalion commander when I was with Tutu in Fallujah. He committed suicide in 2019. So shortly after that is what started it. How long had he been out? Boy, I don't know that exactly. Because when I got out, he was in for another 10 years or so.

Yeah, I ask because I feel like there's a sweet spot of danger for people. and it's, I have no data to support this. This is just anecdotal, my own experiences. There's like a three-year danger window, and then there's a little bit of a longer, like a 10-year danger window. You know, without looking at the dates, I think it was relatively quick.

Yeah, inside of that initial window. Okay. Window, yeah. Yeah, heavy topic, for sure. Do you think there's an actual solution for it? Oh, I tell you what, Andy. I'd actually No, I don't

I think there's ways around it I think there's ways to identify it I think there's ways to better it But I just don't know man If there is I wish we knew Yeah well unless you could solve it for all of society I don't think it's possible to end it completely It is statistically in the first responder

In military community at a rate That is orders of magnitude greater than the civilian populace And I've thought a lot about it but not by choice just because of the people that I have known. I also wonder how much their experience prior to entering the occupation plays into it as well, because oftentimes you hear about specifically veteran suicide, their military service only the deployments that they did. But this story starts at their journey into the military.

And I'm curious as to the impact of their earlier life and the trajectory and the choices that they made later on too. Yeah. If you come into, I was doing a podcast with Dr. Paul Conti yesterday of all things. And he's a PhD psychiatrist. He was on the Huberman. He did like a four-part series on mental health on Huberman's podcast. And we were chatting about it. And that trauma from earlier in life, undelt with, you stack it with the occupational trauma from the military life.

It's not like one makes the other one better. It's just even more weight in your backpack or rucks out. whatever term you would want to use. Yeah, I often hear people talking about the military service, and I'm curious. And I asked him the question, do people who come from a more traumatic background, do you think that they would be more enticed by a first responder or military career? And he said, absolutely. So I don't know.

I don't know where that leads us. No, a handful of years ago, when I kind of started getting into the mental health thing, so I'm a firefighter, too, by trade. So we've implemented a fantastic program at the fire department. So we require every single firefighter from myself all the way down to the brand-newest firefighter. You're required any way to go see a mental health physician. For how long? One hour.

So fantastic program. But what that does, in my opinion, statistically speaking, there's somebody on the department that needs to go. So the rest of you can suck it up for that one person. You know, we're not asking to raise your hand, do that whole thing. But everybody goes and we hope you get something from it. So kind of a cool deal, but in that endeavor of when I really started taking this serious, if you will, after Captain Barrettstock committed suicide, I started kind of thinking like, you know, what is the problem? What's the core root of the issue? And I came up with this obviously very uneducated assumption or guess or hypothesis, if you will, but I think it comes down to a mission, a mission statement. What's the first thing that we're taught when you step into boot camp, a mission? Right? Mission statement.

Well, what branch are you in? Navy. Okay. I don't know necessarily if we were taught shit about a mission. Probably not.

I was taught important in Starboard and how to fold my underwear into a knife cutting edge. You're 45s. I was going to say, let's rein that back a bit. So, okay.

Maybe the Marine Corps Army are taught about mission. Fair enough. Fair enough. But I think we had purpose. We had drive. We had all of those things. Community too.

Yep. The camaraderie. that everybody talks so much about. The day you EAS, they take it all away from you. Now you got nothing. So one thing I talk to the firefighters a lot about is what is your personal mission statement? What's something that you believe in that keeps you on the path? You start veering away from something.

What's going to put you back on it? And I think that's a hard reality for some people is that they don't have one. You know, in theory, you might think, yeah, I may have one, but do you truly have one? Have you written it down? And is it something that you follow? So I think in the military community, when you get out of the service, what do you have? Right? You go away.

Your brotherhood, your sisterhood is away from you. There's states over. And what do you have? So then I think you start compounding things on to that. If it be debt, if it's bad relationships, all that kind of stuff just adds up. And I think one thing we learn to some extent of the military is the value of life, right? and I'm not sure some vets see it, and this stuff starts to add up.

They don't have that mission, that purpose, that hope, these things that we leaned on the military for, is all gone. Now what? You make a decision, you know, that's a permanent decision to... Almost always associated with alcohol, too, at least for the community I come from. It's more up, I mean, not always, but from a, you know, the math doesn't really lie on it.

It's probably well into the 90th percentile. I'd say when I got out of the, the military a handful of years. I was talking about my psychologist at the time, and we were talking about my stent at Iowa State University, which was largely a blur, because I was drinking so much. And she said,

do you think you were, you know, running from something or hiding something? And I'm like, at the time, I didn't put two and two together, but I think you're right. I think a lot of it has to do with that. What did you do in the name? Oh. That was a corpsman. Okay. We call them pecker-checkers.

Let me preface this. I was stationed at Camp Lejeune. Okay. So you were probably at FMF corporate. I was. Okay. So when I talked to either Marines or anybody, I have to tell them that. So, yeah.

Yeah. That's one of the things that you really gravitated to, Andy, when you got into bow hunting was you said, I feel like there's so many people that are missing this mission. And it was like mission training of what? what's the purpose of what I'm doing? Yeah. And like... We're having an end state that they can kind of drive towards.

Yeah. As opposed to a spinning compass. And they're like, fuck, I don't know. I guess I'm going this way today. And at that time, you and I were, you know, we were hunting like every season that was available throughout the quarters, I guess, of the year. You're like, well, what do I need to do to be ready for that one? And I'm like, you got it, we're going to have to be this, this, this, this.

And even like when we went to that first tack, it was really prep for, some of our more extreme style of, you know, backcountry hunting. But you were dorking out with the fact that, you know, different, different applications needed different gear. Oh, yeah. And different physical training. I've always been a gear nerd, though. You're totally a gear nerd.

I was the kind of guy who would get issued a vest of some kind and I would go take it down to the airloft and move a pocket, a quarter of an inch or a cut off. I mean, holy shit. I remember, let's just say there was a difference in volume of gear and weight of gear between my first deployment and my last. It was patrol. I remember the first patrol and Iraq. Everybody's got the knee pads, elbow pads. I think I had 14 fucking mags the first time I went out the door and almost went down from just exhaustion and he stroke.

If you had showed me when the post 9-11, if you had showed me what I was going to wear my last day versus what I thought I was going to put on my first one, like you're psychotic. Yeah. Like, so you're suicidal, huh? That's what we're going to go with? I mean, Molly, Molly gear, which is, I forget, it's like, what does it stand for? Mission-oriented pieces of shit that gets really heavy and fluid of any kind. And you can stack it. Yeah, that's the technical definition of Molly.

It's this weaving of fabric and it locks it in and it is so heavy and it gets bulky so fast. And I would just go with razor blades and start cutting that shit off. Because ounces become pounds and pounds just punish you in places that are 10,000. feet. Yeah, it, uh, and so I would, but I was that guy. I would get a piece of gear and I would look at him like, this pocket would be better a quarter of an inch over. And I also enjoyed sewing, though, too. So I would totally nerd out on the gear side of the house. So yeah, when you were talking about bow hunting, I'm like, oh. So this is what that new credit cards for. I need all of these things. I was like, why, why do you have a 5,800 backpack on? You're like, well,

where does my javelin go? I actually custom made that backpack. It was excellent. It was an Alice pack frame from Vietnam. It was good. My Buzzlight your backpack. I enjoyed it. Many others didn't, but that's, you know, sometimes that's the way the cards lay out on the table. How long did you serve, Clay? Five years.

Okay. I joined an O2 and got out in 2007. All right. And then straight into the fire service, or obviously after the drunk in college years? So I actually, when I got out, I went to school at Iowa State to be a teacher. I wanted to get away from medicine and everything that was helping people. And then a handful of, you know, those drunken years, I was a broke college kid. I still had my, an endorsement to do evaluators through the state.

So I went back and, I was broke. So I went back to a local hospital and helped state proctor EMT students. And then I realized that I, I don't want to say I missed it, but I wasn't good at shit else. So it kind of brought me back in and fast forward 15 years and still doing it. How would you say, so the person that every firefighter goes and sees for an hour, do they have the ability if they felt like they needed to to pull somebody off of a shift? He does. So the physician that we use, we call it a PAC program, a proactive annual check-in,

he does have the ability. So obviously there was a lot of red tape, and a lot of questions came about this program. Completely confidential, all that. But if that does happen, he does have that. the ability to do that. What would the impact be on the two-part question? What would the impact be on the firefighter if the decision was made by the therapist or if a firefighter came forward and said, hey, like, I need some time because my eggs are scrambled upstairs. Is it career ending for them? I don't know that. There would be a significant process in place. In my opinion, that's a good thing.

Like, we've caught this ahead of time. Yeah. It's also the main reason why people won't come forward, though, because they don't want to put the brakes on their career. And, and, you know, Vets, firefighters, cops, we're all to our core. That's who we are. And you take that away from us. You take a lot. So that was actually discussed quite a bit. But he does have the ability to do that.

Could it be a career ending? Absolutely. Yeah. Maybe it should be for some people. I do think so. I mean, I was thinking of scenarios of like, where would it be justified, where you're not like robbing someone of what would keep them, what would keep them on this side of the edge?

but yeah there's definitely times when some people are self-destructive too so like at what point especially I was a volunteer firefighter in Wisconsin and when you're in some of those situations I mean you could see where where in some cases if they were on the other side of the ledge everybody's going to be trying to save that situation whereas if that person was just trying to end that situation, you would end up like, you literally take out the whole department because no one's going to leave that guy there, right? It's a slippery slope, man. But yeah, I think, you know, the doctor we use is fantastic.

His brother's a cop. He understands the industry. So obviously I have the utmost trust in him in that decision, but I do think you're right. It would be a slippery slope. You pluck that element of a mission out of a firefighter. you took their identity away. Yeah, but what if that identity is the one thing that's going to end up taking their life? Like, you know what I mean?

Yeah, no, I hear that. It truly is walking on a razor blade. And I don't have answers for any of this. I've kicked around the idea with a bunch of friends of mine that I used to serve with, or just asking them, do they think they should put a maximum limit on combat exposure? Mostly because, you know, blast wave exposure, all the things that come with that. Like, is there, I mean, I think the data is pretty conclusive. inclusive as to, especially when it comes to traumatic brain injury, all the things associated with the blast exposure, even in a training environment.

It can be done and have little impact, but it has to be managed and tracked. And it can absolutely get over to the other end where it changes your brain chemistry and people start making choices that are not in their best interest. And I think most of the guys would argue not to have a limit put on them until they were at the tail into their career and they realized it would have been. been the best thing for them. So I don't know if it's possible. And I don't know if the guys would allow it. I don't know. I don't know many careers that are like that, where you know the impact it may have on you. And in the short term, like, fuck it. I love it so much. This is who I am. I'm going to keep going. But firefighters do it all the time. And it's the most selfless, you know, same thing as vets and cops. But, you know, you'll put your marriage second to your

service if it's the fire department you'll put your you know you'll miss your your son's t-ball game because i got to work right where's your priorities lying there right going back to what's your mission right if your job is ahead of your kids then you're you're off base well let's be clear too i mean if you gave me the choice between suicide and watching a six-year-old play t-ball i might kill myself i coach my you know what i mean my son's eight my son's eight and i help coach nothing will test your patience like an eight-year-old it's the worst

it is the worst three quarters of the game is the catcher walk into the back stop to pick the ball out trying to throw the ball back and it's just like the short stop

and like the ball's on a fucking tea hit it it's time to be a man all right you're six and they don't and they hit the tea and the ball drops

and they just run with the bat in their hand children's sports will destroy I went to it oh my God I don't know if you've heard this story

I went to my daughter's basketball tournament. I'm sorry, Julie, if you ever listened. I was just, I didn't want to say it, but I was going to say I went to a women's eighth grade basketball tournament. And I remember it was four to six at the end of the game. Dude, they went into like, I don't know what's past quadruple, but it was ever, whatever that number was overtime. Kinti? yeah kinsinaura overtime or whatever it was so her team historically was garbage they did not win much and we get to this tournament and they fucking start winning so every time they win they're going farther

into the bracket and as i'm like don't i love my daughter to death but i had to watch another child throw a basketball in a non-shooting fashion at a hoop where it is only just flying through the air. Six feet away. I mean, not even hitting the backboard, not even hitting the net. It's just like bouncing off the wall. So they end regulation. And I don't know what the score was, but it was barely into the double digits.

They continued on sudden death overtime for like six overtimes without a fucking basket being sold. I feel like that's when the net needs to be lowered, though, because it just comes down to like physical ability, right? It's like, I don't know. So we're like, get a light, like, give them a mini basketball until they're in junior high or high school or something. Leah's text me like, hey, how come you're not home yet? And we're still, I'm like, I don't have the vocabulary to describe to you what's happening. She's like, what does it look like?

And I was like, it looks like pygmy's fucking. Like, I don't know what's happening. This is a display of athleticism that would, I mean, you definitely would meddle at the special Olympics, but not like. Oh. Dang, bro. It was, hey, I'm not, I'm not knocking the special. I'm not knocking the Special Olympics.

It's amazing, but I, I, my jaw was on the floor. Yeah. Eventually it was ended because they stopped playing and they put people on the free throw line. It'd be like if they had the pole vault in junior high and like starting height was 10 foot. You'd just be watching a bunch of kids. that didn't even know how to work their feet that that were that size yet. And then a pole, like it would just be a disaster.

Like the crescendo is somebody would drive down the court unguarded and just throw the wall behind the backboard. And like the parents, because they just wanted to leave. And then it would come charging back the other direction. The parents just like, yes. And it would like go off the wall. And then, yeah, they finally just like, we're going to do a sudden death free throw. contest.

How long did that last? It was like 15 shots. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life. So now that I think I've offended almost everybody, let's talk about this raffle. We're back on pace. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, for anybody who wants to skip ahead through all of that and me getting cease and desist letters from the Special Olympics, let us talk about how people can get involved in the actual organization itself.

Yeah, so a lot of our stuff, obviously we do a lot of hunting, fishing here in the state of Iowa, all over the place. But we put everything out on Instagram, Facebook. If you got a hunt or something that interests you, fill application out and come out and hunt with us. Okay. Specifically, so obviously tomorrow, by the time this episode comes out, this is Friday, it'll come out in seven days. we're going to do a banquet tomorrow. Nick Lavery is going to be coming, what would you call it?

Is he doing like just a presentation, a keynote speech? Yeah, keynote speech. It's going to be tailored to kind of the mental health side. Okay. He's a great one to talk about that. Fake Boston accent for anybody listening. But involved in this.

He's actually from New York, I heard. Yeah. I mean, it's probably from like Louisiana, but nobody listening to this obviously can be involved in that. I guess they could reach out if they wanted to be, or they were in the Des Moines area and wanted to be perhaps involved next year,

depending on where you guys host it. But we recorded an episode for the knock-on podcast earlier and talked about the raffle opportunity, though, which is an opportunity for people like we kind of open with, even if you're not a hunter, I bet you know somebody who does hunt. And once we kind of talk about what's involved in this and what the cost is and what it'll be, I think it'll make a little bit more sense to people.

So if you could unpack a little bit what it is you're going to be offering through the raffle. And then how people can actually, participate in that. Yeah. So this year, one of our big hunts that we do are white-tail hunts, obviously getting to come into Iowa. So through mutual friend, Brian Chantosh, went hunting with him last year, chat with Brian. This year we were going to do our first archery hunt. We historically stayed away from archery hunts, obviously the difficult nature of it. If we're bringing it here, we want you to shoot a deer. But we have an opportunity this year to do an archery hunt.

So chatting with Tosh about it, he said, why don't you reach out to Dudley and see if he want to get involved in somehow. I'm like, oh, man, he lives right down the road. Thanks, Tosh. He's just love the dude, man. Rath to Tosh for a long time. He's awesome. I could talk for hours about that guy. But so I reached out to John and I said, hey, man, this is a random cold call to you.

But this is what we're trying to do. This is what I'm thinking. What do you think? And he says pretty much to the, to the, to the, frame of let's just not do it but let's do it big so so what the the raffle's going to be this year is uh a chance to win a custom bow by john john will build you a custom bow but when you sign up for the ticket you're going to get to nominate a disabled veteran um there's some criteria that must be met 30 percent disabled that's what we were sure you said a hundred jackass i knew it wasn't

a hundred that was a guess it was a guess ish well and we were pretty clear it's a hundred i think We were clear for your show. We were like, we actually don't know what we're talking about. So we knew there was criteria. We just didn't know what the criteria was. So, yeah, there's some criteria. Obviously, you've got to be proficient with a bow. 30% disabled.

Not necessarily. You can work through that. Yeah, yeah. Let's just get them here. Well, talk about the bow build. Like that boy you have behind you. Pick it. I'll build it.

Okay. That's it. I mean, does that mean, you can. They can literally pick any PSC they want, and I'll build it. Do you throw the stabilizer on there, the site, the arrows come with it? Come on, nerd. How many arrows in the quiver? Well, if it was yours, I'd give you one.

That's all you need. I'd give you one of Sharon's. Yeah, I would use it, and then I would climb down and then... It's going to be a legit build. Actually, I might not say for you to pick it. I'm going to get something made. That's pretty dope. They actually, especially if they're not a bow hunter,

Actually, even if they are, they should probably just kind of tell you their style and probably be best to let you figure. Like, that's easy stuff to work through for me. That's easy stuff. Okay. But yeah, well, we're going to, you're going to win something that people are going to be jealous about. Let's just say that.

And then the hunt would be for a whitetail in Iowa. Yeah. Which if you are not familiar with whitetail hunting, you're like, I don't know if that's a big deal. It's a very big deal because if you do like white tail hunting, Five-year weight. Yeah, if you know somebody who likes white-tail hunting, just ask them how the white tail are at Iowa,

and you're good to get a year full. Well, and to make it kind of cool, Google Albia, Iowa, that's what we're going to go. I have no idea that it is. It's about 35 miles east of here. World record buck was shot there 15 years ago. Oh, yeah. The muzzle litter buck, right?

What was that buck called? It was a kid shot? Albaia. Oh, yeah. Was it the Alba buck? Is that what they called it? What's going to be the cost of a raffle ticket? 25 bucks for one.

I think you get six. I fought hard to get that number down. I think the more tickets people can buy, anybody, anybody can buy this. And honestly, I want to just say, going back to the beginning of this conversation, if you know someone that loves the outdoors and you even think is struggling from you know, a mental perspective at all, this could change their life. I've seen it in vets. Yeah. I mean, this is why when you called me, I'm like, absolutely. Like, I'm in, but I'm not only in, but I'm going to make it better, you know, which is then I called, called Andy, because this is a governor

tag. Like, let's not downplay this. You're getting a governor tag. You're going to get a doot tag and a buck tag and you know you're that thing's statewide too even though you got them going to a dynamite a dynamite um historically that's where bill winky's from uh chuck adams was a member of like the original ranch there freaking larry zock was there's so many that come from from there so that place is awesome but i wanted to make sure even if you work with someone where you're like that you're like that you're like, you know, this person got injured, their first responder, their veteran, whatever, you know, nominate that person because this could be just a life-changing experience for them, especially if you know that they're struggling with something.

Like for me, like if we can save a life, that's the ultimate prize out of this whole thing. It's tough because you never know about the ones that you do save. You know what I mean? Honestly. You can hypothesis. You know what I mean? You see the change in people, but it's such a tough metric because the other side of that coin is really easy to track. Right.

You know, it's really hard to see the impact of stuff like this. I get asked all the time, how do you quantify what you're doing? You can't. You simply can't. But I oftentimes go back to the hunt, the golf outing, whatever that we're doing. And I personally, it's probably sound cheesy, but I quantify it by a smile. If I can get a smile on your face, is that not the epitome of what we're trying to do?

We're bridging the gap between a vet, a cop, a firefighter, a kid, we do a lot of kid hunts, but a smile. If I can bring a smile to your face on a dark day, on a dark time, give you the hope, all that kind of stuff. But yeah, it's not a quantifiable thing, unfortunately. Where do they buy the raffle tickets? So we'll have the link on our website, Helpinghero's foundation.org. It'll be right on the front page.

Click the link and limited time to buy though, correct? Correct. I think we're going to. We'll put the links. Yeah, for sure. It'll be the show notes. Yeah. During for this, it'll be in the show notes.

Correct. We'll go live at the airing for. We said one week. I think we're going to cut it off at midnight on the 19th. Okay. Yep, 12th to the 19th. So you have seven days, assuming you're listening to this when it comes out on Friday. Yeah.

100% of the proceeds go. 100% go back to the nonprofit for all. veterans and first responders. But one thing I want to point out, though, is the winner gets the bow and nominate the veteran. But, you know, if you don't have, if you're not a bow hunter, sign up. And if you win, we'll get it to a good place. That's for sure. So, again, proceeds go back to the nonprofit, but get in on it.

It's going to be awesome. I mean, who doesn't want a John Dudley bow or hunt Iowa? I'm trying to think what I want to do now. Well, you're going to work with them on show. shooting too, right? I think it depends who wins it. Whoever, like if it's a first responder that wins it, I might do one thing. If it's a veteran that wins it, I might do another. It's got to be a vet. Well, the bow, sorry. Wait, what? No, go, no. Vet for the hunt. Talk about the bow. Vet for the hunt? Vet for the hunt. Only vets? Yep. So it can't be anyone,

it can't be a disabled first responder? It cannot. It has to be a 30%. It's probably a state restriction on the tag. state restriction. But anybody can win the bow. Okay. So we could get a double combo. We could get a first responder win the bow and then the vet goes out. That's sweet.

I dig it. And then during that week they're coming, this happens to be a year where Andy's going to draw a tag. So I think we're going to try to, depending on the exact times, we're also going to try to have you swing by the school knock with that person on the way to their hunt just to kind of do a sight in with me and Andy maybe put an arrow in the ceiling like Chad like Chad how about freaking gardener dude i mean some people draw aiming at the ceiling that's fine let's see miller Mendez you didn't take miller's arrow out of the door did you Sharon did she claimed that for her fitness area down there and she's like can i please fill that hole and take the vein out of the

The door and I'm like, no. But she didn't. It's gone now? It is. Is it been preserved anywhere? I think I have it inside of the door. Okay. And the video still exists, obviously.

Yeah, that's always going to see it. The classic double clutch with the silver back. Yep. Be careful. Be careful letting UFC fighters shoot bows in your basement. I'm so stuck to watch him fight live at 300. Oh, because you haven't seen him fight live. I've never been to a UFC life.

Oh, man. Oh, really? Yeah. Actually, when this episode comes out, I'll be traveling the next day down. We're all going to be there for like 24 hours. Okay. That'll be dope. Yeah.

I actually thought about going to see Jimster, but that's when we're first tack, I think, if I remember, right? Maybe he'll come to see him. Wait, is that next weekend? He fights on the 13th. Okay. Oh, yeah, next weekend. Sorry, Jim, turkey season. Today?

Huh? Started today. Youth? It did? you think he'll hang it up I got the kid right here I can't run turkeys for fucking save my life not during season at least

no he calls and cows come to the blind it's true that cow put his head in our blind very true I think we were blown at that point you think oh you think uh Jim will hang it up after 300

I don't think he'll ever hang it up unless he needs to and I mean I don't know I think the orbital thing hurt him Yeah, the finger in the eyes. Yeah, I think that, you know, change things. Because obviously when something major like that happens, you would hate to see him get rocked. But I don't know, hats off.

That sucker's, he's just a tacticianer, isn't he? I love the fact that he just owns where he's at, too. He came to Calisbell to be on the show and trained with us for a day. He is a handful. I wanted to see you a little spicy, peppers go after it he's not ready for it so as soon as you had your purple belt and you started talking shit I'm like oh no I was talking shit to him before I even started you should say of course no he's he's a savage for sure size and strength are a real thing I'm bigger than gym yeah you know

people who think that it's like this magic wand that levels all playing fields like so you've never done anything athletic in your life huh yeah come on until he leg kicks you well Well, fortunately in the rule set, we were playing in, that's not allowed. Yeah, because in the normal situation, I think he'd just break that sweet-ass little bitchy shin you got that has a bullet in it. I put every advantage of my favor. I made him put a gie on so I could slow him down. He even said he's just like, my God, my grip is destroyed. Actually, he told me that.

He's like, he's like, I think I just needed more time. Well, he's, he moves. I mean, they're little gloves and people get sweaty. and you watch people rip out of stuff. I was like, yeah, let's get a guy on this fast-moving fucker. So I could hold on to you as hard as I can for as long as I can just to slow you down. He's a rascal, for sure. He's the best.

Have you seen the picture of his brother being guillotined with his neck completely? It's the hardest kink in any human's neck that I've ever seen. I will show you, I'm not going to take the time to find it now. You will be shocked. Was it in one of his fights, one of his brother's first fights? Who was he fighting? I don't remember. Jim was the one who told me about the picture,

and then he pulled it up, and I actually didn't think the human neck could contort that way. You will see it, and you'll go, what? And he didn't tap to it. How many brothers are there in the UFC? I know there's the Guidas and the Millers. Well, both of those. Yeah, the Millers one was short-lived, I believe,

because they're obviously both not still fighting, Jim's. The small one. How long have you been with the department? I started. I think I'm going on 15 years? Clive. Is it Clive? Sorry.

Sorry. How close are the department's up that way? Very. I was going to say it's got to be tight. Yeah. Yeah, anything west of Des Moines. Pretty. They're all kind of small.

What's the size of the department now? We got about 50. Oh, that's sweet. Are there even in any other cities in Iowa other than Des Moines? Des Moines. I mean. It's the only one I've seen. I would say there's towns outside of that.

But that's our only city. Don't you drive to MSP sometimes to fly out, like International? I mean, yeah, I'm doing it next month. Okay. I'm going to B.C. We basically got an assesana to get here from MSP. So I think we're a lot closer. Yeah, it's pretty, it's just a hop from Minneapolis.

But you fly Delta. Normally I'm united, so we're either Houston, Denver, Shytown. Okay. Okay. What do you guys want to leave people with? It's probably right around 30. minutes is perfect timing. I like 35 minutes.

We can go as long as you guys want to go. I liked where you guys were, I liked where the avenue you're going. I thought it was pretty cool. What, suicide stuff? I mean, that's not cool, but I love, you know, I know from like the tack events, one of the things that's really difficult at the tack events for me is how many people come up and tell you that they literally look at me and say, archery saved my life.

I mean, and some of the stories are like, they were minutes away from doing it. And then heard a podcast or thought like, you know, Dudd and Andy sounded like they had so much fun on that hunt. I want to, I'm going to do one hunt and then I'll do it, but I want to do one hunt or whatever. And then next thing you know, they're like, that's all I needed.

like archery was my purpose and tack gives me a place to train and to you know to actually have like a mission through the summertime and I'm not saying it's once I'm saying it's like if Sharon was here she would tell you we talk to someone that it's saved their life every weekend so when you're like if I get one smile I'm thinking no it's it's way bigger than that it's way bigger and that and that's and because i hear those things that's when i'm like you can't pass up that opportunity this is not just a person's life it's their entire family's life too because it's a domino effect right so it's so heavy and you know i'm i'm fortunate like i feel like i have like an entire seal team around me for the amount of you do know quite a few guys the amount of the amount of of your team guys around me and stuff and, man, I'd do anything for those guys. And it would be, and I mean, Andy went through a really hard time. Like, it was, you were there for the beginning of

that. It was, bro, I've been, I've been with you through like all the ups and downs. You know, I mean, you were there at the point where I made the decision, though, that I was actually going to take action on it. Yeah, I have a, yeah, like, we, I remember, like, sitting on that fucking log overlooking that lake. Yeah, I have a picture from that. I have a picture from that. And I can see it like you knew what all was going to happen. And we had a really deep conversation. And then there was there was times where Andy was like, you know, through that that period of time, he was very distant. And it was crushing. Like it was heartbreaking because, you know, it's like, how do you help a friend that you know you just need to see them you know and just like get them out of that five minutes

um but if they don't just say something and that's all it takes is like to say something like you know if you're in that moment don't feel embarrassed about it you have to just you know pick up one phone call to someone you've had an awesome experience within your life and just say hey hey, I don't know what's going on right now, but, like, I need to talk to somebody. And, you know, there was times where I'm like, you know, I was like making Andy promise me like, hey, I'll give you space. But when I check in, you can't not respond. Like, you have to just be like, bro, I'm good.

I always told you I'm not going to kill myself. I'll kill everybody else. Go out on a rampage. That's the way to go. Well, yeah, and I didn't want you to do that. either because obviously I've seen what you can do with a clear of arrows. That was a rough two years, man. Yeah, it was, it is, it was, you know, I don't know everything you went through.

Obviously, I, you know, I was there and within your circle during that time. But it, like, it's a ripple effect too, because people, like, love you so much from the outside and you're just beating on this like invisible force field, which is literally a force field, the person puts up because they, they start to distance themselves. And it's very transparent from the outside. And sometimes, even though the efforts to get in might not seem like they really know or they care, sometimes it's like you don't know how to approach it. So any type of reach one way or the other, you've got to just reach out and grab that hand

because people will pull you through it. You know, it's, it's, you know, Tasha's had some, some, some hard days at camps and stuff. And, you know, it, we've had that in so many experiences where we've been with our black rifle, you know, brothers and sisters. And that's why, like, when people,

ask me about black rifle or someone slings mud, you know, it's something that's gone on. I'm like, listen, you know, how many freaking lives have been saved from the events that Evan Hafer and Matt Best put people in front of, you know, in front of my passion and helping these people. Like the amount of times where it's saved someone's life

is heavy. It's like really heavy, but it takes you, guys doing things like this to reach out and then, you know, hopefully something like this, you know, kind of save someone. And then a lot of times when that happens, that person gets on board and either starts a new one or gets on board with where they're at. I mean, we were, we went to the gala for the Navy SEAL Foundation. And, I mean, that was pretty heavy, too. Yeah. Like, I mean, that was really heavy when, you know, a lot of the names came up on the screen.

And I was like, you know, I asked Andy, I'm like, how many of those people did you know? And he's just like, bro. Too many. Yeah, most of them, if not all of them. Yeah. And that's what he said. And I was just like, that's heavy. It's horrible.

So. The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the face value, they look perfect. Yeah. But they're fighting a war that. That's the thing, man. the face value, I think one of the biggest hiccups that people have is they think that they're the only one struggling with it. Or if you just, like, one of the things that I think is horrible about social media is it provides people the opportunity to only show their best self. And so if you don't actually even know the person too, especially, like everything is curated or has filters or whatever, you know, there's eight different pictures they could choose one and they chose the one that presented the best picture that they've.

wanted to present. And if you live in that world and you don't even know those people, I think it's easy to fall into this trap of, well, everybody else's life is great. Perfect. And I'm fucked up. And so who am I going to talk to about this? And I think the reality is. Yeah, this guy's happy every day.

I'm going to call him and burden him with the fact that I'm down today. I don't know a single person that's happy every day. I know some very, very happy people. I also know some very, very successful people. And they're not happy every day. No. And I don't care what your net worth is. I have not met anybody who hasn't had low points of physical low points or emotional

low points or the combination of those two things. I just, the people that I don't worry about are the ones that are willing to talk about highs and lows. The people that I do worry about are the ones that say nothing and just kind of drift off into the shadows. Those are the people that I've known that have made that. It's not a rational decision to me in their moment. I realized to them it became irrational.

choice, even though it was in the greater context of everything not rational, but this idea that nobody else is struggling is such bullshit. Everybody's struggling. Oh, fuck. Yeah. You know, and for me, I was like so thankful for Leah, you know, I remember having a conversation with Leah one time where I'm like, thank you so much because I was so worried about my friend.

But like, you know, it's like through that negativity, all of a sudden, like, here's the sunshine and... I had to go through that negativity to find her. I feel like you did. I did. I mean, like, in hindsight, I'm like, okay, all that was worth it. I think I said that I'm like, bro, it's... How awesome is it to know all that was worth it?

But I would never wish those two and a half years on anybody. let alone a friend. However, in saying that, it's like I have a better Andy at the end of it. I would agree with that for sure. It definitely changed me as a person, but I think for the better. Yeah. I mean, not as much of a kid anymore now. Oh, that's not true.

I'm at least dealing with a 20-year-old. Oh, God, no. No, probably 15 at best. Leah may take it all back now, too, because now she has to deal with it. She's just like, God damn, I can't believe you said that. Or did that, or both. Yeah, it's all of the above, dude. Like, I'm going to make this very clear.

Yeah, I'm sure at some point it's just like, here we go. Who knows what's... But I think that's why people listen to your podcast. I don't think they actually like it. I think they're waiting for you to make fun of the Special Olympics or whatever the heck you're going to do next to you did. I didn't make fun of the Special Olympics. I said that my children's basketball...

basketball team wouldn't even have meddled at the Special Olympics. Well, for sure. Because the Special Olympics is up here. Yeah, they're so good. Daughter's basketball team here. Big gap. Yeah. I mean, if you're comparing sixth grade girls basketball on a regulation NBA-sized net.

For people out there going to your kids' tea ball games, just remember vodka is the same color as water. You can hide it in that. And there's your ending. That's a joke. everybody just so you know I don't advocate that don't drive drunk especially with your kids in your cars we're having old fashions what do you think love it it's good it's good and we're empty final uh final thoughts by me give him one more give him say it one more time this is important uh when it goes live so it's gonna go live on the 19th no no that's closing closing on the 19 so the 12th episodes come out at 5m

mountain standard time so from when whenever you see you hear this down on the show notes will be a link to the website you have seven days from when this episode airs actually seven days and Almost eight because we're going to close it at midnight on the 19th. That's your time. That is your time. Sam, one more time. Custom bow build from John Dudley. Come out to Iowa for a disabled venture.

Gov tag. Wow. Chase some white tails around southern Iowa. You know what governor tags go for just in an auction on their own for any non-resident? North of 40. Yeah, exactly. Are you serious? 40G, dude.

For a white tail deer. All day. All day. All day. Just wow. One just saw. for 47, 5. There you go.

I have not seen a deal. And it's 25 bucks for one. And what was it for, you can buy the... I think there's a package deal for 6 for 100, and then 20 for 200 or something. I'd have to check, but it's all listed on the through website. 100%. 100% goes to the right place.

Yep. Veterans for your founders. Knock-ons get in the bow. You and Kim Reynolds doing the G-Texam. and Dudley and I'll do some archery shooting with you by that I mean I'll stand there and take pictures while he actually teaches you

I'll probably critique your form Dolly'll tell me to shut up Let me just refrain Andy will have Make sure you have target panic Within seven minutes of shooting at the school So That is true actually

I take a different approach Yeah You derail everyone around you So that you look really good That allows you to build them up Oh okay You crush them Yeah.

I need to get Andy a shirt on the back. It'll just say Crusher of Souls. Yeah, but only to be built back up. You know? But to be built back up. Yeah, by somebody else. Okay. Bob the builder over here, ladies and gentlemen.

All right, sign up now, everybody.